Balangao of the Philippines

Prestige Considerations

The Balangao language could have been written without f, ch, and r, like the Philippine national language Tagalog.

But when SIL linguist Jo Shetler proposed an alphabet without these, the Balangaos who had studied English in school would not accept it-- they were used to the English alphabet.

Since it is just as important to respect the desires of prospective users as to have a linguistically perfect alphabet, f, ch, and r were included in the Balangao alphabet.

In Balangao, f is a variation of b; ch of d, and r of l.